Josh Mack blogging at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts, and occasionally on; bicycles, politics, Brooklyn, parenting, crafts, and good reading. Currently helping to build a new NYC neighborhood news site - nearsay.com, that celebrates the voices that make our city. Subscribe to the daily newsletter it gives you what you need to know.

Rejoined Facebook today to experiment with their new openess. The intial reg process with its ability to pull names from multiple e-mail address books is great. Integration not just the ability to place something on a site using an embed code.

Users will also be adding applications to their site, where others
can click and add it to their own profile. The apps will essentially
look like any other Facebook application.

The payoff is two way. Not only do developers get deep access to
Facebook’s twenty million users, Facebook also becomes a rich platform
for third party applications.

Facebook’s strategy is almost the polar opposite from MySpace. While
MySpace frets over third party widgets, alternatively shutting them
down or acquiring them, Facebook is now opening up its core functions
to all outside developers.

May 17, 2007

Several random thoughts:

- I realized, as our birth class instructor had my wife lie on a exercise ball and then proceeded to straddle her thighs while demonstrating a squeezing maneuver to relieve the pain of "back labor", that there are no opportunities for male childbirth educators.

- Two skit ideas based on a short trip to the Meatpacking district to see our friends film. -- A nightclub with bouncers my height five eight on a good day letting in or not letting in little people. The nightclub would be right next to a restaurant with enormous bouncers.--It would be nice to see Will Farrell and Chris Kattan playing their characters Doug and Steve Butabi, just walking around the area window shopping, checking out the crowds.

- That there is actually a birth control pill called Yaz. I now know this as I was discussing SMS alerts and I had a who's on first moment when their mobile play was descirbed to me. I kept thinking of the band though others might think of Carl Yastrzemski.

- That I can't get my head around the fact that WallStrip was bought for five million dollars.

May 16, 2007

Ruling on Roomate.com's libility for postings. Interesting ruling, "all three judges in the decision yesterday agreed that the site could
be held liable for soliciting information from users through a series
of menus about themselves and their preferred roommates and for posting
and distributing profiles created from the menus. The choices on the
menus included gender, sexual orientation and whether children were
involved."

Amazing video from Talking Points Memo, of former Deputy AG James Comey's testimony. It reminds me of the brutal scene from the Godfather. It also brings my level of respect for Comey, Ashcroft, and Mueller up a ton. Go Schumer!

In his editorial, Earth to G.O.P, the Gipper is Dead (Times Select needed), Frank Rich mentions Ron Suskind's article Why Are These Men Laughing in which John DiIluio says "...What you’ve got is everything—and I mean
everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the
Mayberry Machiavellis." Below is the author's note that sits in front of the article.

Author Note:"Why
Are These Men Laughing" contained a series of critiques of the Bush
administration from an ex-White House official, John DiIlulio. DiIluio,
whose thoughts were sent to the author in a polished, elegantly
constructed seven-page memo, was the first ranking administration
official to publicly criticize his boss. According to DiIulio, the
political team at the White House was making every policy decision,
ignoring the advice of experts. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman,
commenting on this article, said it was now clear that the Bush White
House had "no interest in the substance of policy, caring only about political payoffs."
Shortly after the article appeared in Esquire, the White House went on
the offensive, forcing DiIulio to apologize for his assessments that
drew a comparison to Stalinist Russia in the Washington Post.

May 11, 2007

Went to the Old Stone House this evening to attend Brooklyn Blogfest. I had forgotten to RSVP, in fact I didn't know you had to RSVP from the postings about it, so after a few minutes of stand by I was let upstairs into the packed room. The event was created last year by Louise Crawford, of Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn, and she invited a great selection of local bloggers among them Brownstoner, No Land Grab, Gowanus Lounge, Atlantic Yards Report, CreativeTimes, and Steven Johnson from Outside.in. I've just made a "blidget" of Outside.in's coverage of my zip code.Many of the bloggers mentioned should be represented in the headline flow. Themes covered were the opportunities created by the failure of mainstream media to cover local issues,the importance of blogs covering the Ratner development, blogging in areas that are gentrifying, and Brownstoner's somewhat cautionary account of trying to make a go of it his site as a full time gig. I introudced myself to Flatbush Gardener whom I very pleased is listed on GardenVoices.